Named after a small town on the Amalfi coast of Italy, our story began in 1969 on the Van Tonder family farm near Stellenbosch. A cheeky newspaper headline read, “Woman Abandons Children for Flowers,” as our director’s mother, a school teacher, quit teaching to pursue her passion for flowers.
Sharing his mother’s passion, Francois van Tonder took over the business in 1991 and grew the region-serving nursery to what it is today: an internationally acclaimed, boutique events agency with the highest standards of style and elegance.
Our company name refers to our origins on the Van Tonder family farm, but it also contains a contrast of meanings that defines our essence.
While "Sorrento" means, "a place to come home to," it also gestures to a faraway city on the Amalfi coast of Italy. Within the space of this contradiction, of comfort and the exotic, we tailor-make the perfect event.
We gather the splendour of South Africa – the natural beauty, colourful people, and wild imaginations – and immerse it into the fashion-forward style of Italy.
You deserve better than a generic off-the-shelf event planner. At Sorrento Events, we design your event around you – entirely bespoke and customised to perfection.
Think less “ready-to-wear” and more Savile Row original.
Most event companies outsource their floral designs, but not us. We demand perfection, so we think it is best if we took care of our arrangements ourselves.
It might explain why we have contracts with Cape Town’s leading hotels simply for our flowers.
Our boutique event design agency was born in the Cape Winelands but has an insatiable appetite for travel.
Because we know that you need to look beautiful all over the world, we offer consultancy in not only Cape Town, but also London, Geneva, and Paris.
The beauty of reducing our carbon footprint is that the legacy of your event lives longer.
That is why we do things like donating used flowers to charities like old-age homes and hospitals — to name but a few.
We love to let beautiful things linger.